LOS ANGELES, California, United States—Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, the 93-year-old Hollywood star of yore, serial marrier and cop slapper with the distinctive sultry voice, is set for hip replacement surgery Monday after a weekend accident, her agent said.
"The doctors decided to do a hip replacement surgery. Her hip was shattered," Gabor's publicist John Blanchette told AFP, noting the operation was due to begin at 6:00 a.m. (1300 GMT) and would last four hours.
"I'm worried, it's a difficult operation. She's 93 years old, but she's a fighter and the doctors are among the best in the world."
He said a press conference was scheduled for noon (1900 GMT) at her home to update reporters on Gabor's health after the surgery.
The actress late Saturday was at her home in posh Bel Air, California "watching her favorite show, 'Jeopardy,' when the phone rang. She tried to pick it up and fell," Blanchette said Sunday.
The Hungarian-born actress and former beauty queen was resting at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where she had been rushed in serious condition. A 2002 car accident left her partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. She also had a stroke in 2005.
Her lengthy film career includes spots in a dozen films and television series, including John Huston's 1952 "Moulin Rouge" and the 1958 film noir "Touch of Evil" by Orson Welles. She lent her voice to several animated films and TV series.
But Gabor is especially known for her flamboyant lifestyle, her nine marriages, and her propensity to call just about everyone "darling" with her distinctive accent.
She was the second of three sisters who shot to Hollywood fame in the 1950s and 1960s. The sultry sisters combined had 20 marriages.
Gabor's past husbands included hotel millionaire Conrad Hilton and Oscar-winning actor George Sanders. After divorcing Zsa Zsa, Sanders briefly married Gabor's eldest sister, Magda.
Gabor was in the news in 1989, when she was arrested for slapping a policeman who pulled her over and discovered that she had an expired driver's license. "It was like Nazi Germany," she told People magazine, explaining her reaction. "They killed half of the gorgeous girls. You should have seen the hatred in his eyes."
A longtime gossip fodder, Zsa Zsa Gabor is married to Prince Frederic von Anhalt, who called the ambulance after his wife's fall.
The self-proclaimed German prince, who says he was adopted as an adult by a German princess, is also a colorful personality.
He namely claimed to have fathered the daughter of late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith after her death in February 2007. Earlier this year, he launched a bid to become the next governor of California.
Gabor's sister and fellow Hollywood actress Eva achieved fame in the United States for her role in the hit television series "Green Acres" in the 1960s.
Source: Inquirer